Golf putting apparatus



United States Patent GOLF PUTTING APPARATUS.

Charles H. Morhardt, 351 S. Bristol Lane, Arlington Heights, Ill.

Filed Nov. 6, 1958", Ser. Nth-772,302.

7 Claims. (Cl. 273-177) Thisv invention relates, to a game apparatus. which is particularly adaptedv for use .as a practice putting device for golf players. It may, however, find other uses, either as a game in itself, or as a component of some g e involving the use of a rolling hall. For purposes of illustration the invention will be described herein as. a, practice putting device.

To enable golf players to practice putting indoors, a number of devices simulating .a putting, green, have been devised for use on a rug or similar floor covering having somewhat the characteristics of a well-kept, lawn on a putting green. These devices generally include a mechanism constituting a target at which the player the golf ball. The target is approximately the size of a cup in a putting green and has an arresting device which may be regulated to stop a rolling ball if the speed. of the ball is approximately that at whicha ball would, drop into a cup, but which will allow the ball to continue beyond the target its speed is excessive.

These prior devices insofar as I am. aware employ in most instances a base on which the target rests and. which forms a slight incline on which the ball has. to roll to reach the tar-get. A cupon a putting green, however, does not have any such inclines surrounding, it, or disposed in the path of movement of an approaching ball, so that these prior practice putting devices were. not truly representative of a putting green and, hence were not entirely satisfactory. Other prior devices of this character which do not require that the ball. roll up an. incline or over some obstacle in the tar-get area have been devised,;but these have other undesirable features such as high initial cost, false deflection away from, the target, lack of .adjustability, etc.

An object of this invention is the provision of an improved golf apparatus in the form of a practice putting device usable indoors on a rug or similar floor covering, which is inexpensive and yet provides putting conditions. simulating very closely those encountered onan outdoor putting green.

A more specific object of this invention is the provision of .a golf practice device, the target of which does not require the use of a base member over which. the ball must roll to reach the said target, and which provides a readily adjustable variable resistance to the passage of the ball through the target area to simulate greens which might be said to be fast as well as. gradations therefrom to greens which might be said to be. slow.-

As another specific object, this invention has within its purview the provision of a self-supporting golf practice putting device which not only supports, a. target, but.

which also acts as a backstop for a ball that either passes through the target area, or misses the. tanget area by a predetermined amount.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent from the followingdetailed description when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view in section of a golf 2,957,697 Patented Oct. 25, 1960 ice] 2- putting practice device made in accordance with this invention;

Fig.. 2 is a plan view ofthe putting device of. Fig. 1; and.

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view in section of a pore tion. of, the device of Fig. 2, said view being taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 2 and in the direction of the arrows at the ends thereof.

Refer-ring now tothe drawings for a detailed: description of the form ofthe invention there illustrated, the putting device is comprised of a frame 10, one of the principal functions of which is to support a disc-shaped target 11 cccentrically secured to a pivoted rod 12 on frame 10.

The frame 10 is shown, for illustrative purposes as; a semi circular or u-shaped sheet of metal turned on its edge, 13 and supported from that edge 13 on a rug 14 or other floor covering having generally the physical characteristics of a putting green. The material of which the frame 10 is comprised may vary widely, and in addition to sheet metal may be made of plywood or colored plastic or any other materials from which formed articles may be made. Similarly, the frame 10 is shown as a solid sheet of constant height but it is understood that it may also be a perforated sheet such as a grill, or it may be a wire mesh screen of suitable sturdiness to withstand the normal handling encountered in devices of this character.

Target 11 is likewise shown as a disc-shaped sheet of metal, the diameter of which is approximately that of a cup in a putting green, but the disc may be made of other material. such as wood or plastic, the principal. requirement being rigidity so that it may retain a given planar condition. The center of gravity of the disc 11 is approximately at 15, which corresponds to the geometric center of the disc. It is contemplated that disc 11 will normally be supported for swinging movement about a horizontal axis. above rug 14 and at a small in? clination with respect to the plane of the rug substantially as shown in Fig. 1. It is also contemplated that disc llwill he supported above rug 14 at an elevation which is such that a ball such as is shown in dot-dash outline at 16' will strike the under surface 17 of the disc 11 slightly beyond the horizontal axis and that to this endthe front. edge 18' of the disc 11 will be raised above the rug 14' to permit a ball 16 to enter the wedge-shaped space formed between the bottom surface 17 of the target disc 11 and the rug 14.

It. apparent that any ball which is putted' toward target disc 11 and. comes under said disc into the wedgeshaped space between the rug 14 and the outer surface of said disc. will be correctly aimed and directed. The ball might have been struck too hard, however, and if so struck on an actual putting green would have jumped over the cup. To introduce the element of proper speed as Well as direction, the device of the present invention employs the following expedient.

Plate 11 is pivotally supported from frame 10 by rod 12 to which it is rigidly secured by welding, glueing, fastening or other means so that the plate and rod 12' are to all, intents and purposes a unitary member. Said rod 12' inturn is secured to frame 10 near the spaced ends 19' and 20 thereof by pivot pins 21 and 22 which, if rod 12 is made of wood, may take the form of wood screws passing through suitable openings in the sheet metal frame 10. Said screws are loose enough in their openings in frame 10 to permit rod 12' and its associated plate- 11 to swing freely therein.

To achieve the desired inclined disc position of target plate 11' shown in Fig. 1', rod 12 is secured to plate II eccentrically of the normal center of gravity 15 of the plate. Said plate 11 under these conditions, however,

would continue to swing downward about the pivot pins 21 and 22 until the rear edge of the plate 11 struck the rug 14, which is undesirable for a satisfactory operation of the device as a putting practice device. A stop is therefore provided for the rod 12 to limit the angle of inclination of plate 11 to that shown in Fig. 1. The stop mechanism is shown in Figs. 2 and 3 and is comprised of a pair of substantially identical clamping members 23, 24 having cars 25 on either side through which are passed screws 26 which are either threaded into the ears of the bottom member, or, alternatively, may be provided with nuts (not shown) into which they are tightened. For ease of manufacture, both clamp members 23, 24 may be provided with a radially outwardly extending lug 27 which engages a lug 28 extending inwardly from the sheet metal frame into the path of movement of lug 27 and comprises preferably an integral portion of a stamping 29 appropriately fastened by a bolt 30 to frame member 10. The clamp members 23, 24 may be secured to rod 12 in any one of a number of angular locations thereon so that the swing of the target may be arrested at the desired angle of inclination thereof with respect to the plane of the rug 14.

Obviously, other forms of stops for target 11 may be employed and will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

It may be apparent from the description thus far given that a ball 16 moving into the target area will strike the inclined disc-shaped target 11 beyond the center of gravity thereof, and, depending upon the amount of energy in the moving ball, the ball will either be arrested by the disc or will overcome the pressure exerted by the eccentrically supported center of gravity of the disc and will pass through the target area toward the frame 10. It may be mentioned at this point that frame 10, being U-shaped, acts as a stop for balls which have either passed through the target area, or have gone to either side thereof. The unbalanced weight of the plate 11 represents a fixed force and hence may be said to simulate a fixed condition of a putting green. The condition of a green varies, however, from day to day and from hour to hour and a player must therefore learn to adjust the force applied to a ball to the condition of the green. This requires that a practice putting device such as the one herein described should likewise provide a variable resistance to the movement of a ball through the target area.

In the present invention the variable resistance is supplied by a weight 31 mounted on an arm 32 pivoted to the disc-shaped target 11 preferably at the geometric center of the target by a bolt 33 and a nut 34, with suitable friction washers 35, interposed between the arm 32 .and the nut and disc 11 to make it possible to adjust and hold the position of the weight 31 angularly with respect to the center of disc 11.

Since disc 11 is eccentrically supported by rod 12, the distance of weight 31 from the center of rotation or axis of rod 12 determines the magnitude of the turning moment about the axis of rod 12 developed by the combined weight of the unbalanced portion of the disc 11 and the weight 31 plus its arm 32 and securing means. For a minimum moment, weight 31 and its arm are turned 90 from the solid position shown in Fig. 2, and for a maximum moment, weight 31 and its arm are disposed as shown in solid outline in Fig. 2. Various magnitudes of turning moment between these minimum and maximum values are available by turning arm 32 and its weight 31 to intermediate positions. Thus, the position of the Weight 31 shown in Fig. 2 may be marked Slow to correspond to a slow green requiring extra force to move the ball thereacross, and the position of weight 31 and arm 32, 90 removed from the solid position of Fig. 2 may be marked Fast to correspond to a condition of the green requiring a minimum force to cause the ball to move thereover.

The rolling action of a ball as it passes under the plate 11 may be retarded by adhering a layer 36 of felt or the like to the undersurface of the disc 11. Obviously, the head of bolt 33 should be concealed to avoid giving an undesirable movement to the ball 16 as it passes under disc 7. Such concealment is readily effected when the layer of felt 36 is at least as thick as the height of the head of the bolt 33 above the bottom surface of the disc 11 so that the head may extend into a recess or opening in the felt.

It is understood that the foregoing description is merely illustrative of a preferred embodiment of the invention and that the scope of the invention is not to be limited thereto but is to be determined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A golf apparatus comprising a substantially flat plate, means for pivotally supporting the plate above a substantially fiat surface eccentrically of the center of gravity of the plate such that the plate will tend to assume a vertical position under the influence of gravity, means on the support for limiting the movement of the plate about its pivot under the influence of gravity and for holding the plate at a predetermined angle with respect to the plane of the said flat surface to create a wedge-shaped space which at the large end is high enough to receive a golf ball therein and at the other end is too small to pass a golf ball therebetween, and means for changing the location of the center of gravity of the plate with respect to the location of the pivot such that the plate will resist a change in its angularity with respect to the flat surface in accordance with the position of the center of gravity, thereby to interpose a variable resistance to the passage of a golf ball between the plate and flat surface.

2. A golf apparatus as described in claim 1, said pivotal support including a horizontally disposed pivot such that the movement of the plate is limited to movement about a horizontal axis.

'3. A golf apparatus as described in claim 1, said supporting means including a wall disposed around the side and back regions of the plate to arrest the movement of golf balls or the like which move past the plate.

4. A golf apparatus as described in claim 1, said means for changing the location of the center of gravity including a weight, .and a support for the weight on the plate, said support being movable toward and away from the pivot axis of the pivotally supporting means for the p ate.

5. A golf apparatus as described in claim 1, said means for pivotally supporting the plate comprising an upstanding frame having spaced ends, and a rod pivoted to the frame about a horizontal axis and extending between the spaced ends, said plate being secured to the rod and movable therewith.

6. A golf apparatus as described in claim 1, said means for pivotally supporting the plate comprising an upstanding frame having spaced ends, and a rod pivoted to the frame about a horizontal axis and extending between the spaced end, said plate being secured to the rod and movable therewith, and said means for limiting the movement of the plate under the influence of gravity comprising interengaging means on the rod and frame.

7. A golf apparatus as described in claim 1, and friction means on the under surface of the plate to retard movement of a golf ball between the plate and substantially flat surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,798,723 CuSaJ10 July 9, 1957 

